Rand Paul’s Problem With The Civil Rights Act: It Bans Discrimination In Businesses

Rand Paul, the new Republican nominee for U.S. Senate from Kentucky, told the Louisville Courier-Journal that the 1964 Civil Rights Act should not apply to private businesses.
(via Think Progress)

INTERVIEWER: Would you have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

PAUL: I like the Civil Rights Act in the sense that it ended discrimination in all public domains, and I’m all in favor of that.

INTERVIEWER: But?

PAUL: You had to ask me the “but.” I don’t like the idea of telling private business owners—I abhor racism. I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant—but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership. But I absolutely think there should be no discrimination in anything that gets any public funding, and that’s most of what I think the Civil Rights Act was about in my mind.

Appearing on Hardball, Rand’s Democratic opponent, Kentucky Lt. Governor Jack Conway, says Paul is also against the Americans With Disabilities Act, and the Departments of Agriculture and Education.